Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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I wanted to take a moment to express my personal thanks to all members of the Paizo community who have shown their support and trust by setting up an ongoing Planet Stories subscription.
Subscriber numbers so far have exceeded my expectations, and each time another customer decides to take the plunge, the more the line's long-term survival is assured. The idea of getting enough subscribers to sign up that Planet Stories remains profitable--and thus perpetual--is very real, and while it will take many months to get there the early support you have shown by subscribing makes that goal seem more and more attainable each and every week.
Retail sales for Planet Stories right now are steady but not spectacular. This is to be expected when entering a new sales channel, but we are in an important point in the history of Planet Stories, when every little bit of support really can help.
You've already taken the biggest step in setting up a subscription, but there are a few more things you can do to help establish a solid footing for the line:
1. Review, review, review! After you have read your Planet Stories book, please take a moment to post your thoughts in a review here at Paizo.com, on Amazon.com, and elsewhere. Please be honest in your opinions. If you didn't like the book, say so! The more customer feedback on a product page here or elsewhere, the more information a consumer has to make a decision one way or the other. Your feedback counts!
2. Spread the word! If you have a blog or post regularly to science-fiction and fantasy-related communities, take a moment to share your thoughts about the latest release or about the Planet Stories mission to republish classic works of fantasy and science fiction. I'm convinced there are a lot of folks out there who would be interested in our mission, but who haven't heard about it yet. Please help us give them a chance to get involved early!
3. Get in the game! Paizo got its start in the hobby games business, and many of you came to Planet Stories via RPGs. If you've got a regular game, please mention Planet Stories to your buddies, and consider loaning copies of your favorite stories and novels to interested readers among your fellow gamers.
4. Keep in touch! A Planet Stories subscription is a two-way relationship. Please post your thoughts on the Planet Stories message boards to help us get a sense of what readers want from the line, what authors and stories worked, and any other topic related to the line. Post to the Requests thread to offer suggestions for future Planet Stories books, and feel free to begin any fantasy or science-fiction-related topic of your own on the Planet Stories forum.
Now is an important time for Planet Stories, and even the smallest bit of help promoting the line can have important results.
Once again, please accept my personal thanks for getting on board with your ongoing subscription. We've got some wonderful stories ahead of us.
--Erik Mona
Publisher
PS: And for those of you who haven't subscribed yet, the line starts here!
Hi!
I just went and posted my review at Amazon.de (I'm a Buckeye abroad)
Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
I hope that it helps.
take care.
Doug
Just wanted to say thanks as well to everyone who's signed up so far - it's not always easy being an up-and-coming spec fic imprint, but you folks are making it possible. I continue to think that we're doing something not just fun, but important, and believe me when I say that we've got some real doozies coming down the line.
(On a related note, our advance copy of Moore's Northwest Smith came in today, and that sucker is *thick* - talk about getting the most bang for your buck! I also just finished my initial edit pass on The Ginger Star, and I think it's far and away the best book we've done yet. Exciting times...)
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Erik,
Just curious how sales are going since January. I just found this thread. I have not been doing my job obviously. I will get on it. I have read four of the books so far and plan to read the others I have before going on to other reading. Almost finished with Elak and will probably read Howard's book next. Then the Lord of the Spiders. I will start posting reviews.
Thanks so much for this Erik. I sent an email to my group just a few days ago reproducing Gary's Appendix N and talking about Planet Stories with them. I know many in my group never even saw the 1st edition DM Guide. We are playing Saturday and I will pull out my whole collection and talk about them what I have enjoyed. I also have a couple of duplicates Elak being one of them and I am going to pass them on to group members who are interested.
Is this basically a list of short stories?
I have to admit I am ignorant of the planet stories line.
If so, have you ever thought about getting some advocates of short stories to pump it up a bit?
I know Steven King and a few other authors have really been trying to bump up the short-story writing, feeling it's somewhat of a dying art that needs revival.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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The line contains novels and collections of short stories. To date there are more novels than short stories, but we will eventually get around to releasing some topic-based anthologies.
You can learn more about the Planet Stories line here.
I'm plugging Planet Stories, as you already know, and I've taken the plunge with a subscription, even though I'd been buying the entire series piecemeal through retail stores up till now.
I have no idea what your advertising budget is like or whether you'd deem it worthwhile, but you might consider taking out ads in some of the old school gaming periodicals that have sprung up recently. Many of their readers would be very keen on Planet Stories if they knew about the line. Most likely they don't, because Paizo isn't a company whose products they'd normally buy. It's a long shot, I'll admit. Might be worth a try nonetheless.
Dear Mssr's Mona & Sutter,
I've been so jazzed with Planet Stories and the way Paizo has handled the material. Confession: I haven't yet subscribed, for two reasons; first, I already have many on the Leigh Brackett and C. L. Moore stories, including some of the original pulp magazines (Virgil Finlay illustrated "The Moon That Vanished"- swoon), and second, my capital has been flowing into an indie film project.
However, since that project is set in that gorgeous pulp universe, I can, ahem, use my 'research budget' to justify a subscription...
Cheers and keep up the great work!
Steve
Darn...now I'll have to suscribe as well... your marketing really works! Support Paizo!
Hey, thanks guys! We appreciate everyone who picks up a Planet Stories book, but you really have no idea how much each new subscription does to boost the line and help us keep the fiction machine running.
Well, I know that it is not right now, but come tax time, and after getting some bills paid off, I will also be signing up for a Planet Story subscription. Unfortunatly, right now my money is going to other things that have to be paid.
Hey, thanks guys! We appreciate everyone who picks up a Planet Stories book, but you really have no idea how much each new subscription does to boost the line and help us keep the fiction machine running.
Oh, yeah...seriously, there's something afoot down here in the "rhizome" or "mycelium" economy, where fan-based small businesses and micro-businesses seem to be puttering along while the dinosaurs are felled by financial asteroids (not that the tree shrews then or now had a sweet day, either)
Four quarks for Muster Mark!
Cheers!
Nice! I encourage a very thorough research regimen.
Yessum! I'm trying to figure out a pretext to make the pilgrimage to Portola, New Mexico one day -- to look at the Leigh Brackett, Ed Hamilton and Jack Williamson manuscripts archived there.
In the meantime, I'd like to discuss my thing with you; what's the etiquette?
Is this the club house? How does initiation go down?
That reminds me I need to Amazon up the Skaith trilogy. I can understand, a little, how Kuttner is largely overlooked these days. But for the Skaith stuff, written mid-70's, to be forgotten by the mass market, is an absolute tragedy.
It is indeed. Initiation is a complex affair involving Amazon.com reviews, posts to the Requests thread, and black candles.
Your initiation kit should arrive shortly by post.
Understood, Mona. I lost my black candles somehow in the move. But I'm going to cannibalize some of my old reviews and proceed on Amazon. Your mission of dark enlightenment marches on.
Is that a dualistic question or a non-dualistic question?
Then I will give my answer:
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I wanted to take a moment to express my personal thanks to all members of the Paizo community who have shown their support and trust by setting up an ongoing Planet Stories subscription.
Subscriber numbers so far have exceeded my expectations, and each time another customer decides to take the plunge, the more the line's long-term survival is assured. The idea of getting enough subscribers to sign up that Planet Stories remains profitable--and thus perpetual--is very real, and while it will take many months to get there the early support you have shown by subscribing makes that goal seem more and more attainable each and every week.
Retail sales for Planet Stories right now are steady but not spectacular. This is to be expected when entering a new sales channel, but we are in an important point in the history of Planet Stories, when every little bit of support really can help.
You've already taken the biggest step in setting up a subscription, but there are a few more things you can do to help establish a solid footing for the line:
1. Review, review, review! After you have read your Planet Stories book, please take a moment to post your thoughts in a review here at Paizo.com, on Amazon.com, and elsewhere. Please be honest in your opinions. If you didn't like the book, say so! The more customer feedback on a product page here or elsewhere, the more information a consumer has to make a decision one way or the other. Your feedback counts!
2. Spread the word! If you have a blog or post regularly to science-fiction and fantasy-related communities, take a moment to share your thoughts about the latest release or about the Planet Stories mission to republish classic works of fantasy and science fiction. I'm convinced there are a lot of folks out there who would be interested in our mission, but who haven't heard about it yet. Please help us give them a chance to get involved early!
3. Get in the game! Paizo got its start in the...
+1
I've felt something bad coming in my bones. :-(
You will have to pry my subscription from my dry, sapless fingers. Thanks for making it no worse than a hiatus. I will try to complete my collection during the hiatus, in the hopes that you will work some Mona magic by the time I am ready for #34.